Svavar Knútur offers a breathtaking emotional dichotomy with his simultaneous new singles and videos While The World Burns (Repainted) and November — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Amid sadness and despair, there can be light and happiness. But managing to capture both of those moods in the span of a few minutes of a song is challenging to say the least. Icelandic indie folk singer Svavar Knútur has pulled it off with his double-sided release: The hauntingly aching While The World Burns (Repainted) and the gear-changing, adventurous November.
Knútur creates a truly stunning effect with While The World Burns (Repainted). Its cinematic musicality is only outdone by the duet Knútur has with Norwegian vocalist and actor Helene Bøksle. The track instantly brings to mind The Swell Season, the duo of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová who earned an Academy Award for Best Song for Falling Slowly from the film Once. Ironically, the original version of While The World Burns was issued back in 2012 on Knútur’s album Ölduslóð (Way Of Waves) — with Knútur and Irglová performing the song.
As stunning as While The World Burns (Repainted) is, Knútur is at his creative best on November. The song initially recalls the iconic Nick Drake for its sparseness, relying on Knútur’s voice and acoustic guitar as strings emerge in the distance. About two minutes in, things take a detour, with the pace picking up and an urgency beginning to surface. The song blooms into a gorgeous, head-bobbing, pop-driven effort, bringing to mind The War On Drugs. “A love song to a month much maligned, November conjures a portrait of a dark and melancholic but also stormy and transformative month,” Knútur says. “The longing for summers past, but also the inescapable trajectory into the strange beauty of midwinter, ending with the embracing of the turning wheel of time.”
While The World Burns (Repainted), which was produced by Knútur, features him on vocals, piano and guitar. Fleshing out the arrangement are Örn Ýmir Arason on bass and synthesizers, Bassi Olafsson on percussion, cellist Unnur Helgadóttir, Karl James Pestka on viola and Sigrún Kristín Jónasdóttir on violin. Arason, Helgadóttir, Pestka and Jónasdóttir play the same instruments on November, which was produced by Olafsson (who supplies drums and percussion). For November, Knútur is on vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and synthesizers, with pianist and keyboardist Stefán Örn Gunnlaugsson.
Both singles are from Ahoy! Side B, “the final chapter of a 15-year-long project exploring the world of grief” which follows 2018’s Ahoy! Side A. The latter earned him two Icelandic Music Awards for Best Album and Singer of the Year. The two offerings were combined into Ahoy!, providing closure to the project while “serving as an independent story.” Knútur says the album, which features five songs reworked or “repainted,” isn’t as gloomy as you might anticipate. “Contrary to common expectations, the story is not as dark as some people might think, as the journey through grief is also a journey of discovery of light, love, beauty, gratitude, and purpose.”
Knútur calls the northern city of Akureyri, Iceland home. His albums include 2009’s Kvöldvaka (Songs By The Fire), 2010’s Amma (Songs For My Grandmother), 2012’s Ölduslóð (Way Of Waves) and 2015’s Brot (The Breaking). His EPs include 2015’s Songs Of Weltschmerz, Waldeinsamkeit And Wanderlust and 2020’s Bil/Between. His influences range from Nick Drake, Will Oldham and Kris Kristofferson to Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Nick Cave, among others. Although he mainly plays in Europe as he prefers to travel by train, Knútur will perform in Montreal in February at Folk Alliance International.
Watch the videos for While The World Burns (Repainted) and November above, hear more from Svavar Knútur below, and join him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
